ABUL, Afghanistan, Feb.12 — Afghan officials said today that 17 civilians, including women and children, had been killed in an American-led bombing of a mountainous region of southern Afghanistan, where United States Special Forces have been fighting rebels since Monday.

The fighting began when the Special Forces were attacked in an ambush and called in coalition planes to bomb the area.

Col. Roger King, the United States military spokesman, said that the Special Forces battled about 25 rebels who had been spotted taking up offensive positions around midday Tuesday, and that the Americans had captured 12 men near the village of Lejay.

He reported no American or coalition casualties and said he had no information about civilian casualties. But the civilian toll appears to have been heavy.

An aide to the governor of Helmand Province, where the fighting was going on, said villagers had reported to the authorities that 17 civilians, including women and children, had been killed.

"The people came crying, saying their relatives had died or were missing," the aide, Haji Muhammad Wali, said by telephone from Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah, Reuters reported.

The fighting has been concentrated in Baghran, a mountainous region in the north of the province. Baghran has been a source of concern for the United States military tracking movements of suspected rebels.